A spot for me to blog on life in my garden, where I grow things, read things, drink tea and ponder. An important principle for me is living a simple life - to live simply so that others may simply live

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Thursday, July 31, 2014

So this is it - the final course. Paris in July is coming to its conclusion, and for my final post in the Taste of Paris series, I wanted to spend a little time reflecting on the idea of a degustation.

La Degustation refers to a long meal, more focused on tasting than eating to fill. Its frequently a method used by chefs and wine makers to 'showcase' their specialities, and to make an evening out of the 'total' food and wine experience. Often the small size meals are matched to different wines of the same region. And from what I've heard, a good degustation experience involves resting between the courses, and enjoying the meal with friends.

Pronounced as 'dee-gus-stay-shun', the meaning of degustation is
basically 'small amounts to taste'. It modern times, degustation
generally involves a multiple course meal that highlights a Chef's
talent and creativity. The portions are generally small and the purpose
of a degustation experience is to taste, rather than to simply eat.
Degustation is not simply limited to saying "Mmmm, this is good." You
must swirl and savor the food in your mouth, give out elaborate
descriptions of the palette about how intricate the combination of
ingredients were, appreciate the culinary gifts of the chef and interact
with the elite company around you. Degustation menus can also include
savories, cheese, dessert and wine amongst many other edible items.
Ladies and gentlemen - welcome to the art of tasting (from here)

So, isn't that exactly what Paris in July is - a degustation of all things French. We have each taken the time to 'showcase' our own specialities, or passions. Nichole shared her photo stories (and apologises now for problems with her blog), Adria and Vicki shared about their own books, and the city they live in (including ice cream!), Bellezza showcased her literary and perfume passions, Karen showcased her love of children books and other pieces of french literature, while I stayed with the travel and tastes of Paris interests I have had since I was very young. Our many participants also took the chance to showcase their love of Paris and France - and like matching a good wine with the degustation courses - our participants posts matched the flavours and textures of the hosts!

I experienced a french degustation last year for Bastille Day, and I have fantasies of experiencing it again. Of course, the company you share such an experience with is half the fun of it too. Here's a blurb for one degustation I really lusted over based in the South Australian Wine District.

Nestled amongst the vines on Maxwell Wines estate is a hidden treasure -
The Lime Cave. Inspired by the underground quarries in Paris, land
owner FP Shipster hand-carved this limestone cave in 1916 to grow
mushrooms. Almost a century on and the Lime Cave is again being used to
grow mushrooms and with our highly talented chef we have created a 9
course mushroom themed degustation with our premium wines included in
this uniquely stunning place to dine.

It's just as much about the way you write about a degustation that makes the full experience - again, much the same as our blogging event - Paris in July.

Have you experienced a french degustation? Can you remember which course you loved the most? what about the conversation you shared with friends over the length of that meal - do you remember that? Can anyone recommend an affordable degustation experience in Paris?

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Who hasn't expereinced this? In France, busting to go to the loo - but not having the cash? Cash? I hear you say, why do you need cash?

In Australia, you'll find public toilets everywhere, mostly clean, and definitely Free... In France, when you're travelling in Paris and other popular tourist destinations, you'll be confronted with either a turn style or an assistant expecting cash.

Everyone has toilet stories after travelling. Here Riana talks about some of her experiences as an expat living in Paris with toileting rules - quite funny really. She makes the point that you will find a range of different toilets around this ancient city, including the Turkish toilet. She also mentions the outdoor experience.....

Which button would you press?

Riana doesn' appear to mention the toilet that took my partner and I by surprise - the electric assisted toilet - this is one that has a 'muncher' attached to it. Usually in older hotels that were built before plumbing. The electric motor starts when you flush and it 'munches' things to fit into the old or thin pipes.

If you're looking for some useful advice on toilets in France, here Rick Steves provides some great advice to prepare the novice traveller.

Does anyone else have interesting toilet stories from France? Has anyone ever been confronted by toilets in France with no doors, or mixed gender loos? what about what toilets are called in France? I'd love to hear your stories too!

Sunday 3rd August - I will do something drawing on all the posts I read as a way of finalising my experience of the event.

Keep us informed on your posts this week by filling in each post into this Mr Linky.

Once again - thank you so much for playing with us this July...

RANDOM WINNERS!!!

I haven't done the weekly wrap up as I promised - but I have selected two random winners
Marina - for your mouth-watering post on the best burger in Paris....
and Mae - for your honest reminder about the current state of affairs in 'Paris Burning'
--- please email me your details so I can send you a little pressie. My email is on my "about me" page.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

I was going to post something on Wine today, but I've decided I want to actually do some wine tasting and research for that post this coming weekend - So I will post on wine next week.

Gabriel Gate

Today I want to introduce my overseas friends to an truly Australian experience of Paris in July. Every July, when most of us are preparing to go to bed, a fabulous TV spectacular commences at 10pm here in Australia. For the duration of Le Tour de France, SBS television runs a beautiful production of the race.

The show starts with a 1/2 hour of Gabriel Gate's Taste le Tour - segment devoted to the food of the region that the race is riding through that day. Gabriel has been presenting this show for many many years - and we Aussie Francophone's just love Gabriel. We love his accent, the people he interviews and the cooking lessons he shares with us.

Following Gabriels opening food show, the presentation of the race on SBS is absolutely world class and world leading. The SBS presentation of the Tour is so beautiful that when we were actually in France on the side of the road watching the race, we were skyping home to Aus to watch the SBS show of the race. I need to apologise to my OS friends, cos I really dont know if you can watch Gabriel, but I hope you can from some of these links...

Once again, Gabriel discovers the best gourmet specialties of each
region of the 21 stages of this amazing race. He visits century-old
markets and restaurants, and features cheeses and wines that have been
made in the same manner for three or four hundred years.
After having trained as a chef in France 40 years ago with some of
the great French master chefs, Gabriel firmly believes France is the
most exciting country in the world for food. In each segment, he cooks a
superb local French dish that features the specialties of the region.
Some dishes are ancient, others are modern and exotic.
Gabriel knows France intimately and has chosen for his stories some
stunning scenery in each region, including a number of the most historic
and picturesque French villages.

Gabriel Gate's relaxed French demeanour can be deceptive - one of
Australia's most enduring celebrity chefs is also one of the hardest
working. Gate has written 22 cookbooks since he followed his Australian
love, Angie, a language teacher, to our shores in 1977.

And when I was searching today for some information to include here in my post, I came across this even better post about Gabriel and his cooking shows. Check out this post on The French Wench - she even had the opportunity to interview Gabriel! Our friend, the French Wench says

One particular moment of Le Tour I try not to miss is the daily 4-minute
segment preceding the race, which is dedicated to the food and
specialties of the regions traversed by the Tour riders every day day: “Taste le Tour“, presented by French chef legend Gabriel Gaté.

Gabriel also presents some of his Taste le Tour shows with a good sense of French Humour.

And he's a prolific author, including this wonderful little book of the Tour.

I hope you too can find some Gabriel online....

Do you have your own local French Chef personality? Someone who makes french cooking come alive to you? Love to hear your connections with French Chefs locally.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Walking through two french towns - some photo's from my trip in 2011 (the year I went to France to see Cadel win the Tour de France!). Photo's are an important part of my life - my dad was a massive photo taker, and my life is well documented. My partners dad was also a big photographer. When we got to know each other we learnt that his dad took photos of scenery and my dad took photo's of people. I clearly prefer my dad's style, learning towards taking photo's of people. But here, I'm posting some of the photo's I've learnt to take of 'things'. I hope the ones I've chosen tell a story.

Troyes

Troyes takes almost all visitors—French as well as foreign—by
surprise. This lively town of narrow cobbled streets and half-timbered
houses in ochre, pink and yellow was once the brilliant capital of the
counts of Champagne. Today it’s an unspoiled treasure trove of art and
architecture, a thriving modern city that wears its past with elegance
and charm......Located in the Aube, the southern tip of the Champagne region, Troyes (pronounced Trwa, as in un, deux, Troyes) lies just 100 miles southeast of Paris.

Icecream, and afternoon tea time

Troyes made it into our itinerary when we decided, at one point in our journey, to stop catching trains and hire a car. It was a random decision, but not one we regretted. We hired the car for four days while my partner was recovering from a head cold and didn't feel like doing the public transport thing. Troyes was our drop off point, so we didn't have to take the car back to Paris. While my man was recovering from his head cold, he decided to investigate the surrounds on his bike - while I walked - and loved every nook & cranny I found.

Montpellier

In spite of such ambitious money-flinging, Montpellier’s real charm
and character is to be found in and around the old city. Much is hidden
to the untrained eye, but a bit of background works wonders.

Take the walls near the war memorial and Esplanade. Today they are
surrounded with parkland and greenery, but have a look at which way the
arrow slits are pointing. They’re not defending the city, but poised to
attack it.

This dates back to the religious wars of the 17th century,
when Louis XIII laid siege to Protestant Montpellier, and then built a
citadel to secure it. Much of the newer parts of the city, therefore,
are built on former military ground – it took an awful long time for the
powers that be to trust the locals not to cause any trouble.

The old town is a delightful place to have a stroll, and takes the
form of a shield-shaped mess of narrow streets and alleys. Little
staircases run up past preserved buildings with medieval stone vaults,
then miraculously break into square surrounded by bars and cafés.

After class, my man and I would find somewhere to eat lunch in the old town, then we'd find a sunny spot to do some study. Then we'd wonder around a new area. There's so many little alleys in the old city, we spend the whole two weeks exploring. There are art galleries, open music concerts, plenty of sales and shopping to be done in both modern and old city shop fronts.... it was definitely a walking tour I loved.

We studied with Accent Francais, a company that provides lessons for foreigners on an ongoing basis. If you are thinking about doing something like this, my only advise would be to ensure that you get placed in a class at the best level for your motivation and skills. I was placed in a class below my capacity which was frustrating, while my man was in a class too difficult. we learnt heaps, but it wasn't a good fit.

Walking in Paris and French towns is one of the best ways to dream. What are your favourite towns or places to walk in Paris and France?

Monday, July 21, 2014

July is such an exciting month for Karen and I, and this year is no exception. We've been delighted and thrilled with the variety and depth of the posts that bloggers are contributing to Paris in July 2014... And here comes another week!

Monday 21st July - It's time to catch your breath, perhaps you could review the posts from last week links found here....

Tuesday 22nd July - Tamara's Tuesday Travel post will be about self guided tours of three French towns, and Adria will post an important message about the Paris Love Locks.

Wednesday 23rd July - Bellezza is going to post on a great love of hers - Chanel No 5.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

I feel like I should apologise because this post is totally
virtual – I haven’t prepared any French food to rave about, I haven’t been to
any French restaurants recently to share photo’s or reviews with you, I haven’t
interviewed anyone interesting, or been to any French food workshops... this
post is all about French food blogs that I have been following or recently
discovered. I am preparing this post totally virtually, on my regular (2x week) 3 hour commute from
the office to my home. Dreaming about French food is a great way to pass the
time on a train. I’m hoping you enjoy the trip with me.

My first and favourite French food blog is David Lebovitz –
and he’s not even French! Like some other bloggers we know, he’s an American
living in Paris. This fact however, I find is appealing. He is living my dream,
and vicariously I am transported with him. He regularly posts about new
restaurants, favourite local haunts, new drinks, how to type posts, and he’s un
ashamedly a bit opinionated. Some of my favourite posts include

Then my next favourite, and newest edition to my list, if
Foodme.fr Didier, who is married to an American living in Paris, recently
allowed me to interview him for Paris in July (check it out). Didier shared with his followers recipes and his love of
French food through his personalised cooking schools.Some great recipes from Didier (I haven't made these but they look good) include;

I've recently stumbled across an Australian based food blogger, the French Wench, who has done a couple of great posts, very relevant for Aussie French food lovers. Her recent post about Sydney based restaurant, Vincent, has me very tempted.

What
to make for dinner? The everyday menus below provide suggestions for
easy meals with a French touch that can be made any day of the week in
20-30 minutes. The weekend menus suggest more elaborate meals for days
when you have more time. Use them as a guide, and improvise to create
your own. It’s all part of the fun of cooking.

Meg
Bortin, the Everyday French Chef, says ...it’s a modern, down-to-earth way of cooking that will
allow you to put delicious French food on your table in the simplest possible
way, any day, or every day

My next new discover and I'm loving this discovery, is Manger. This is how our host at Manger describes herself...

Ever since I was a little girl I have been deeply passionate about food.
My childhood was largely spent scurrying between the restaurants of
Hong Kong, where I grew up, and the bistros of Paris and the south of
France where we spent our holidays at my French grandmother’s. Food was
constantly on my mind, I’m the girl who was always happiest at the
table

The author of A Kitchen in France; a year of cooking in my farmhouse, Mimi Thorisson, shares with us her beautiful photos, life on the farm in France, and amazing recipes!

There must be hundreds and thousands of French food blogs, facebook sites and pinterest pages, these are just my current favourites. And here's just a few more to mention.....

La Tartine Gourmande - born and raised in the countryside in northeastern France, has lived in New Zealand and now the United States, Béa (short for Béatrice), is a food writer, stylist and photographer based in Boston where she lives with my husband and daughter Lulu.

Chocolate and Zucchini - Cloltilde is our host, and she has some great pages devoted to hints & tips, interviews, travel, Paris resources, & reading recommendations. I love the name of her blog!

I love France for fresh food, and there's nothing better to remember your holiday to France, than enjoying the food you've eating when in France.

What are your favourite food blogs?
What are your favourite food memories of France?

It’s
a modern, down-to-earth way of cooking that will allow you to put
delicious French food on your table in the simplest possible way, any
day, or every day.

What
to make for dinner? The everyday menus below provide suggestions for
easy meals with a French touch that can be made any day of the week in
20-30 minutes. The weekend menus suggest more elaborate meals for days
when you have more time. Use them as a guide, and improvise to create
your own. It’s all part of the fun of cooking. - See more at:
http://everydayfrenchchef.com/menus/#sthash.i4qIh21B.dpuf

What
to make for dinner? The everyday menus below provide suggestions for
easy meals with a French touch that can be made any day of the week in
20-30 minutes. The weekend menus suggest more elaborate meals for days
when you have more time. Use them as a guide, and improvise to create
your own. It’s all part of the fun of cooking. - See more at:
http://everydayfrenchchef.com/menus/#sthash.i4qIh21B.dpuf

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

When I can visit Paris, I have usually spent months and months preparing an itinerary, down to the hour, for my time in Paris. I can get consumed with the planning process and just enjoy the hours and hours of web searching, book reviewing and questioning friends about the things I want to do... In my previous trips to Paris, I've stumbled on Markets, but never planned for a market day. So here's some of my pre-planning research and thoughts on Paris Markets. I would welcome any ideas, opinions and advice on what to include and what not to include in a Market based itinerary.

I follow a food blogger, David Lebovitz, and he recently posted something about markets. David says

I’ve developed a bit of a “bottom feeder” mentality and
avoid the traditional flea markets, the Marché aux Puces de
Saint-Ouen (usually referred to as the Marché Clignancourt), and the Marché aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves,
and stick to the brocantes that
pop up in Paris during nice weather in the neighborhoods. Prices are much lower
and it’s more fun to see what pops up as people are unloading their trucks

While I appreciate David, who lives in Paris, can find lesbrocantes as they pop up from time to time, I suspect I will need to look at more established markets that are more likely to be there on the day I go looking for them.

Les puces de vanves is a popular trinket and antiques type market, although David Lebovitz (above) says this market is more expensive and perhaps more touristy, this website, in French, has so much information and background about these markets. Even if they are expensive and popular with tourists, I suspect this would be a fun market to hang out in.

For planning a trip, I found this useful one stop shop for market advice – even if you’re not going to Paris, its fun just to flick through these pages Paris Top Ten says

Whether you're in Paris
for a day, the weekend, or a holiday, paristopten.com gives you the freedom and
flexibility to quickly pick and chose from among the very best attractions that
the "City of Lights" has to offer from one convenient website.

Looking for Food Markets could be fun too, especially if you're renting a self contained unit for a longer period of time. Food markets including Marche Raspail, Rue Montorgueil and
Marches Bastille and Popincourt.Here's a warmly initing quote about Marche Mouffetard......

This 'wonderful, narrow crowded market street', as Hemingway described
it in 'A Moveable Feast', still sports bright and bustling stalls of
fruit and veg in its cobbled lower stretches (its upper extremities
largely harbour student bars and touristy shops), its atmospheric
buildings making it one of the city’s loveliest street markets.

Marjorie Williams has written a pocket-sized guide covers
over 120 markets and offers options for every interest. She also hosts this
interest blog and lists her favourite markets from around the world, including
Paris.

One of our own participants, Mardi at Eat Live Travel Write,
has done this wonderful post about markets. She says

For me, there’s nothing more disappointing than arriving in
a town or neighbourhood when the market is just packing up or when you’ve
missed it by a day and you won’t be around for the following week’s

We're having so much fun with this - thank you to everyone participating. Dont forget to check out our week 2 wrap up here. And now, pop your link to post for this week here at Mr Linky so we can all see whats happening and where to find you.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

It's my turn to do the weekly wrap up, and what a pleasure it has been to review all the posts that have been put up. Before I get into the official wrap up of Paris in July posts - I'd just like to indulge myself with a little wrap up of Le Tour de France! I love this race..... and I promised myself that I wouldn't focus on it during Paris in July - but what harm is a small detour?

Us Aussie do well in the tuff conditions!!! Go Richie!!

This week in Le Tour de France we have seen some amazing racing, absolutely terrifying conditions, and some fascinating developments.... The loss of Sky's lead out man, Froome, after falling on the cobblestone day, means a change in role for my current Aussie crush - Richie Porte has now been given a chance at putting Australian Cyclists back into the podium (or close). I'm watching these Aussie boys... Richie Porte (Sky), Mark Renshaw (Omega Ph), Simon Gerrans (OGE), Michael Rogers (Tinkoff-saxo), and Adam Hansen (Lotto)... all up there are 10 Aussies in the race - and we have hopes to see one in the top 10 at the end!

Now in conclusion - I am going give away some random prizes.... just because I've been touched by everyones eagerness to join us in Paris in July. I have a small present for these two lucky ladies. (Just contact me with your postage details - see my about me page for my email).